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April 12, 2008

G12: Red Sox 4, Yankees 3

After a 2:11 delay, Papelbon came in and struck Rodriguez out on three fastballs. On the 0-2 pitch, the two runners took off, which may have distracted Slappy, who whiffed on the 97 high heat.

In the 9th, Giambi (ccbb) struck out swinging, Posada (csfbbff) struck out swinging, and Cano (bsbfbffff) grounded out weakly to Pedroia.

26 pitches in all for Bot, who will likely have tomorrow night off. In six innings this season, he has 12 strikeouts (and only 1 walk).

***

Rain delay with 2 outs in the top of the 8th. Cabrera on 2nd and Abreu on 1st. Slappy at bat and Papelbon in from the pen. He hasn't thrown any pitches.

Beckett looked great once again, allowing only one baserunner through the first five innings (and only 47 pitches). Manny gave him a 1-0 with a long home run to left-center in the fourth.

Beckett faltered in the sixth when Molina and Gonzalez both singled to start the inning. Two sacrifices - a Damon bunt and a Cabrera liner to center -- brought in the first run and a wild pitch brought in the second.

Down 2-1, the Sox finally slapped Mussina around. (They had two singles in each of the first two innings off Mussina, but two double plays and an outfield assist let him off the hook.) With one out in the sixth, Ellsbury singled to left and Pedroia doubled off the Wall. Ortiz -- in a prime spot to break out of his current slump -- struck out. Girardi came out to chat and the Yankees elected to pitch to Manny. Mussina threw an 88 mph fastball in the heart of the strike zone and Being hit it to deep right-center for a two-run double. Bruney came in from the pen and Youkilis greeted him with a single to put Boston up 4-2.

Beckett started the seventh by walking Slappy on four pitches. He got Giambi to GIDP 453, but then gave up a single to Posada and wild pitched him to second. Cano doubled off the Wall and New York crept to within one run.

In the top of the 8th, Okajima got two quick outs on four pitches, but then walked Cabrera on four pitches and surrendered a single to Abreu. Papelbon came jogging in -- and the tarp came out.

After last night's game, the bullpen owned a collective 6.17 ERA, and as high as that figure is, it was deceiving. Subtract the work of closer Jonathan Papelbon and set-up man Hideki Okjima, and the bullpen's ERA zooms to 8.88.

If he's here for two weeks, one thing we don't want him to do is sit every day. That's no good. That kind of gets in the way of his development. We'll probably work him in a couple of times a week over there at the minimum.

Alex Cora referred to his elbow injury as "weird" and something he's "never felt before". He said he should return to his daily routine today.

Michael Silverman, Herald: "Since 1901, the Red Sox and Yankees franchises have been duking it out." The Yankees did not exist in 1901, though I suppose that technically the franchise did. The American League did not have a team in New York until 1903, when the Baltimore Orioles moved and became the Highlanders.

David Ortiz: 0-for-13, 1-for-25, 3-for-39 (.077). Am I worried? Not at all. As I said recently in comments, I'm worried about Flo's bat like I'm worried about the sun rising in the morning. However, I am curious, should his slump continue, if he'll hear any boos at Fenway? I've heard Yankee fans boo Rivera and Jeter, so any insane behavior is possible.

407 comments:

Running yesterday's game over and over in my mind, I conclude that Wang was not "wonderful," as more than one article today put it, but lucky as hell. The Sox must have hit 15 balls hard, and Wang's vaunted sinker was obviously not working worth a damn. If a scout were watching the game and knew nothing about either pitcher, I'm sure he would be more impressed with young Clay. On another day, with the same Stuff, Wang will give up 8 runs.

I logged in and got the old media player/sliverlight screen. I chose the old one (the one on top), and the screen changes. I see it "connect", "buffer" and "wait" ... then nothing. It says "ready" but nothing is happening. Clicking the "play" arrow does nothing.

I've tried logging in first at the home page, tried older games. Same thing every time.

I don't know if it is a problem with the two computers here or with MLB. I wonder if MLB is able to answer their own phones today.

redsock, did you try just getting to the screen of the game, but not pressing play, just waiting and waiting? Sometimes it's just blank for me, but then it pops up after it finishes doing whatever it is it does that it shouldn't be doing considering it's 2008.

did you try just getting to the screen of the game, but not pressing play, just waiting and waiting?

yeah, nothing happens. i had one computer just sitting around last night and I was listening to the radio on the other one.

When i click play, it does the connect-buffer-wait-ready thing but the bar at the bottom of the screen takes forever to fully load. it seems kind of stuck at about 40% (though it does say "done" in the lowest low corner).

I mean, when they give Drew a rousing applause like they still do for Papi.

More bitching: Keep a graphic of toast ready all year for Taverez and Timlin especially. And I'm not just saying this because of last night. In this link it shows that Timlin's groundball and strikeout rates are well below average.http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2008/03/categorizing_pi_2.php

L: I figured your "old days" meant Yankee fan days, which were pre-Waldman as announcer--I know you would've known her from her general covering of the Yanks for many years before. You know, after she stopped being a Sox fan.

Jere, you were right the first time, I did mean in my Yankee fan days.

My last two years in NYC, I was a Sox fan inside - but I was in the closet, leading a double life. And I still listened to the Yankees every weekend at work, because that's what I could get on the radio. That counts as the old days, too.

I'm talking about a background IN announcing, though. You're telling me someone with background as an announcer isn't a better announcer than someone who's neevr done it before? I guess I'm the opposite of you--I always thought she was totally fine as an on-air host taking calls, etc. But then they just threw her in the booth. She doesn't even do play-by-play--most teams switch back and forth, but she literally can't do play-by-play because she's never done it.

Second time in a few days we've had a visible Obama "team" shirt behind the plate. The other night it was Obama in the Tigers logo on some Tigers fan, now it's the Red Sox version on a girl a few rows back. I'm actually wearing mine now--in the McCain/Obama battle, regardless of everything else, including the elections being rigged, I'm rooting for Obama--and I just thought it was cool to have it in the Sox font.

re Ster/Wald: Yeah, it's like listening to two friends talk during the game, but that doesn't make either of them good. It seems like at least Sterling used to at least be a good announcer despite being hard to listen to as a Sox fan, but he's lost it, mahn.

To share a little of my household commentary, because of all the ocoC and LBJ platooning, every fly ball I yell out Ellsbury woulda caught it! It's making me happy that it is actually he who is catching it.

L: A Q for U 2 answer L8R. Last night when Jose Molina got a hit, the "Jose Jose Jose" cheer went up from the Yankee fans lurking in the upper bleachers. Too "Mets"? (Also, does Jose Molina deserve his own specific cheer anyway?)

re: my MLBTV comment earlier - I was at work and i would get the picture all scrobbly for a few seconds - like trying to watch an HD channel on an old TV or something. then firefox would crash... i installed that silverlight thing and it worked fine on firefox 2..not beta 3 tho. oh well, back home n watching on regular TV now.